17. March 1972

Birmingham, Town Hall

Reviews, comments and photos

This is where Mick Rock first meets and sees Bowie perform. Mick recalls: "The venue is half-empty, and those in attendance are more spellbound than boisterous, but Bowie performs with the energy and fervour of a man with a goal. He seems totally out of context in such dull surroundings".

"When I first met David Bowie we swapped anecdotes; he wanted to hear about Syd Barrett and I wanted to know about Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. We talked about how Syd had had it all. Syd and David were similar in the way that neither of them sang like an American. At that time there was a big American influence on music, but Syd and David went against that and sang in a British way. David was very aware of Syd; very interested in him. Of course, in 1973 David did a cover version of 'See Emily Play' for his Pin Ups album. There were many parallels between Syd and David early on; although clearly David had a much tougher psyche. David's 'The Man Who Sold The World' always makes me think of Syd. It's a perfect description of him."